Every year, the Christmas season pushes supply chains and fulfilment operations to their limits. Order volumes surge, product assortments expand, and customer expectations for fast, flawless delivery reach an all-time high. For many businesses, this period can expose packaging inefficiencies that remain hidden during quieter months.
Smarter packaging, such as Ribble Right Size packaging, can transform the way businesses manage this seasonal rush.
Struggling with varying product sizes?
Christmas can bring one of the most diverse product mixes of the year, requiring businesses to switch rapidly between varying sizes to keep up with the demand. Traditional box inventories and manual packing processes simply aren’t designed for this level of variability.
It often leads to products being shipped out in boxes that are completely the wrong size, either requiring excess void fillers to plug the gaps or slower, manual packing speeds while teams try to make products fit.
During peak times, these inefficiencies quickly add up, creating bottlenecks that ripple across the entire operation.
Right Size packaging can streamline fulfilment
Right Size packaging offers a smarter alternative. By creating a perfectly sized box for every order, packaging becomes faster, cleaner and more predictable—exactly what businesses need during these busy periods.
Key benefits include:
- Up to 30% reduction in packing time through simplified, repeatable processes
- Lower material usage, as boxes no longer require unnecessary void fill
- Reduced warehouse space, with no need to stock dozens of different box SKUs
- Faster training for seasonal staff, thanks to automated, intuitive workflows
Instead of working around packaging constraints, teams can focus on getting orders out the door efficiently and accurately.
How automation can help with labour bottlenecks
Recruiting and training temporary staff during peak season is becoming increasingly challenging. Labour shortages, rising wages and the pressure to hit fulfilment targets make manual packing an operational risk.
Automated technologies remove this dependency by:
- Eliminating repetitive manual box-building
- Creating consistent, high-quality packs without human error
- Increasing throughput even when labour is limited
- Providing scalability: simply run the system faster during peak periods
Automation ensures fulfilment centres keep moving, even when staffing is stretched to the limit.
Protect your products
Poorly fitting packaging is one of the biggest drivers of product damage during transit, especially during the Christmas rush when carriers are under extreme pressure. Every return represents a loss: wasted shipping fees, restocking time, potential replacements, and a disappointed customer.
Using Right Size packaging significantly reduces the risk of items arriving damaged as products are held securely, with minimal movement. This results in fewer damaged items, fewer returns and a smoother delivery experience.
Prepare for post Christmas returns
Let’s not forget about the post Christmas return frenzy, as January sees a spike in reverse logistics activity. With a more agile system in place, businesses move seamlessly from Christmas chaos into New Year recovery.
The Christmas rush doesn’t have to be stressful. By implementing smarter, automated systems, businesses can improve speed, cut costs, enhance product protection and deliver a better customer experience.
If you want to see how Right Size packaging can support your fulfilment operation during the busiest periods of the year, speak to Ribble today.
